From Torsten Slok, now at Apollo.

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A reasonable person could ask why, if we’ve done such a superb job of managing the crisis in the US, we’ve done so poorly vis a vis Canada. From FT, today.

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September 22, 2020

We the undersigned express our support for the economic principles and policies of Joe Biden. While each of us has different views on the particulars of various economic policies, we believe that Biden’s overall economic agenda will improve our nation’s health, investment, sustainability, resilience, employment opportunities, and fairness and be vastly superior to the counterproductive economic policies of Donald Trump.

Throughout the coronavirus crisis, Biden has recognized that science-based, public health solutions are critical not only to saving lives, but to any viable strategy to restore economic confidence, recovery, and jobs. Similarly, on issue after issue, Biden’s economic agenda will do far more than Donald Trump’s to increase the economic strength and well-being of our nation and its people. Simply put, Biden’s policies will result in economic growth that is faster, more robust, and more equitable.

Signed by 13 recipients of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences:

• George Akerlof – Professor, Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy

• Peter Diamond – Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Oliver Hart – Professor, Harvard University

• Eric Maskin – Professor, Harvard University

• Daniel McFadden – Professor, University of California, Berkeley and University of Southern California

• Roger Myerson – Professor, University of Chicago

• William Nordhaus – Professor, Yale University

• Edmund Phelps – Professor and Director of the Center on Capitalism and Society,Columbia University

• Paul Romer – Professor, New York University

• Robert Solow – Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Michael Spence – Professor and Dean Emeritus, Stanford Graduate School of Business

• Joseph Stiglitz – Professor, Columbia University

• Richard Thaler – Professor, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Link to pdf.

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Slowing even before the pandemic…

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Source: DB, “Covid-19 impact tracker,” US Economic Perspectives, 17 September 2020.

And the US is fast approaching Italy’s record.

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Not good news. Not that it was so great even before this.

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Sixteen years ago, the G.W. Bush White House suppressed for four years this report on global climate change impacts, which discussed, among other things, the increased prevalence of wildfires. This was discussed in this post, entitled “What the Administration Considered Too Dangerous to Release for Four Years”.

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Two-thirds of the way through Q3.

Figure 1: Reported GDP (black), Atlanta Fed GDPNow (green), IHS Markit (green), NY Fed nowcast (red), CBO August projection (blue). Source: BEA 2020Q2 2nd release, GDPNow, IHS Markit, NY Fed, and author’s calculations.